<p>It's that time of year. Well-meaning family and friends blurt-out unimformed reactions to our college news. What masters of self-control we must be to keep from laughing in their faces or kicking them in the shin. </p>
<p>Some comments we've heard about Son attending Wake Forest:
"OMG! You do know that's run by Baptists, right?"
"Too bad he has to go someplace so small."</p>
<p>On the ROTC scholarship:
"Why doesn't he want to go to college?"</p>
<p>What have you encountered? Share it here. We'll laugh and comisserate together.</p>
<p>Good idea DB! I have been wanting to get this off my chest and now I have a place to do so!!</p>
<p>“Too bad you couldn’t afford to send her to NYU. But I’m sure that other school is good too.”<br>
Okay folks. Our D is not going to NYU because she WANTS to go to Coastal Carolina U - not because we couldn’t afford to send her to NYU. She felt like CCU was a better fit for her and she loves, loves, loves the program at CCU. So as crazy as it apparently seems to all of you, that’s what happened. Okay?</p>
<p>MY DS #2 is encountering and will forever be encountering the same thing as his older brother encountered when people ask where he’s going to college.</p>
<p>“So, where did you decide to go to college?”
DS#2 “Swarthmore.”
“Isn’t that a girls school???”
DS#2 “No, you’re thinking of Skidmore, which used to be all women and is located in upstate New York. I’m going to Swarthmore, which has always been co-ed and is located just outside Philly.”</p>
<p>Followed by a blank stare from the inquiring person…:)</p>
<p>The Swarthmore comment is funny… My son was considering applying there at one time and he was asked quite a few times “Isn’t that a girls school?” Being from Florida, we didn’t understand where the comment was coming from.</p>
<p>I went to Brandeis, and for the last thirty years I’ve had people surprised because they thought it was an all-girls school (isn’t and never was).</p>
<p>My favorite came from my mother-in-law - who hasn’t a clue about colleges but, of course, thinks she knows everything. When cousins chose to go to Kent State, University of Buffalo and University of Oklahoma - she informed me of what wonderful schools they had chosen. When my son chose Wake Forest, she sniffed and said she hadn’t heard of it.</p>
<p>What I’m encountering is comments which call into question our love for and closeness with our daughter, since she’s going to college “so far” from home. Apparently, every other mother in town loves her children too much to allow them to choose a college on the other coast, so I must be coldhearted. And aren’t I afraid she’ll never come home? (Not really, she has no money of her own, lol.)</p>
<p>When son was heading off to school a 5 or 6 hours drive away, someone said “Aren’t you afraid he’ll become depressed being so far from home, and might commit suicide?” (spoken about a very self-assured, mature young man)</p>
<p>Thanks for a place to post this! I could have bet money on the fact that this particular person was going to say something nasty about my D’s school - University of Delaware. D is BEYOND EXCITED about going there in the Fall. Thank goodness she didn’t hear this person say to me:</p>
<p>“My niece loved it there. We went for graduation and, when we got out of the car, all we could smell was cattle. My daughter said she would never go there because of the smell.”</p>
<p>I couldn’t freaking believe she said that. Of course, her D just decided to go to Princeton, which must be a perfect school. Oh, and I don’t think she was “well-meaning.”</p>
<p>Now, when I went to Northwestern, everyone said, “Oh, in Boston?” </p>
<p>NO! That’s NorthEASTERN! Northwestern is outside of Chicago! Sheesh!</p>
<p>Me: “My daughter is going to Williams”
Them: Blank stare
Me: It’s really a good school and it’s a great fit for her with great academics and a sporty campus.<br>
Them: Oh. Do you mean William and Mary?
Me: No, Williams is northwest Ma.
Them: Why is she going so far?</p>
<p>TheGFG, I got that when my son went to boarding school. If one more person had said to me,“I could never send my child away” I would have smacked them! My sister was the worst offender, yes I missed out on some things, but S had a wonderful 4 years, socially, academically and he had some opportunites not offered at the local HS. I am not saying it was better, but it worked for him. I think people now wonder if it was a waste because he is not going to an Ivy!</p>
<p>Why doesn’t everyone know the correct answers when a person talks about their/their child’s college choice?</p>
<p>“Oh, that’s so exciting!”
“What a terrific school!”
“I bet he/she will be so happy!”</p>
<p>Even if you know that the school is #1 in “Dorms Like Dungeons” and “Least Happy Students”, you MUST choose a, b or c above as your response!</p>
<p>I particularly enjoy the flow of the typical conversation.
Starts with the enthusiastic question…So where is your son going to college?</p>
<p>Then when we tell them he will be attending Whitman College in Walla Walla we always get a few moments of silence followed by either “never heard of it” or “oh why did he pick that one”</p>
<p>anothercrazymom… exact same situation here… boarding school…how could i send him away. going to in state university…oh i thought the point of the boarding school was to go to a better school?</p>